3.2 Taking the Plunge

A/N: You know the drill guys.

Here is a bit of a key:

{this is The Game talking to the MC and also system messages}

"This is speaking out loud"

'This is thoughts'

{{This is Gods saying Godly things}}

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Turning over the guild starter pack in his hands, Ramiel couldn't help but shake his head.

A large foldable backpack, a pair of health potions, a single stamina potion, a sharpening stone, a metal flask and a six-inch curved knife which was apparently meant to be used for fighting and killing monsters rather than cutting vegetables.

All for 6000 Valis.

With the potions included, it was probably a good deal but what could he possibly accomplish with a knife of that size?

Fighting another human with a small blade like that was easily doable. Well, provided they didn't have a sword and armour but monsters, even the ones on the upper floors, were literally created to kill things with their bodies. They had sharp claws, teeth and most likely moved in unnatural ways which would make using a barely six-inch blade along with the other four-inch one he had on his person to fight them an incredibly stupid decision.

Perhaps he was overestimating the Goblins and Kobolds found on the first few floors but he had read one too many Fanfics where the SI went into the dungeon half-cocked and thinking they were hot shit, only to almost die to a couple of greenskins. That wasn't him, this wasn't his first rodeo either and despite the fact that any wounds would heal along with his natural regeneration, Ramiel rather liked the clothes he had on and funnily enough, was not looking to add any extra holes.

'I need to go and buy a sword.' He thought to himself while strapping the knife to his thigh.

{Why don't you just open your actual starter pack?}

'My what?'

{Did you ever even play a game in your life?}

'I spent the last few years of my old life in the goddam plains and jungles of Africa. When and where would I have been able to play any games?'

{Internet.}

'Whenever we managed to get any sort of signal, I downloaded as many Light Novels and Fanfiction as I could to read in the times when there was nothing.'

{Fair point but you seriously used your inventory without even taking notice of what was inside?}

Ramiel blinked. 'Oh, I did put the ashtray in there. That was just a subconscious action. ...I guess I'll check it now then.'

The young man leaned against a wall out of the way, shut his eyes and tried to imagine himself peering down into his inventory as if it were a storage box.

After a few seconds of concentration, something seemed to click into place. The feeling was strange, like using a muscle he never knew he had before and when he held onto that feeling, a huge 2D grid-like structure appeared in his mind. Inside the grid were two objects, the ashtray from earlier and what looked to be a small brown package, reminiscent of a certain multinational e-commerce company. He mentally selected the package and words appeared in his vision.

{Do you wish to open the Starter Pack? Y/N}

'Open it.'

…

Starter Pack:

2 Basic Health Potions: Restores 100HP

2 Basic Mana Potions: Restores 100MP

2 Basic Stamina Potions: Restores 100SP

Pair of Leather Gloves: Small Dexterity Increase

1 X Blade: Can be selected

…

Ramiel put a hand inside his jacket pocket, to cover up the use of his inventory and pulled out the sleek and sturdy-feeling leather gloves. 'So the potions would be effective on me during the early Levels considering how little HP/MP/SP I have but after a while, they won't be useful at all.'

{It is just a starter pack…}

'No, I didn't mean it like- Wow, these gloves are comfortable.'

'Look, it's all useful stuff, I was just thinking that it would be better to keep those ones on my person and save the ones from the guild in my inventory.'

After all, a quick Observe had shown that the guild's potions were much more effective.

…

Low Health Potion: Restores 250HP

Low Stamina Potion: Restores 250SP

…

'Let's get on with choosing a blade then.'

As soon as he thought of it, a list of around twenty different types of knives, daggers and short swords, along with their measurements and specifications appeared in his mind. After browsing through all the choices, he selected a 50cm long, curved short sword without a guard that looked similar to a Russian Bebut Kindjal from WW1, only a little thicker in the blade.

However, call him anything you want but compared to his 190cm height and well-proportioned build, Ramiel still thought the short sword was a little lacking. He was even about to head up into the stores of Babel to browse for a larger one and maybe some armour but the Game decided it had apparently watched him be indecisive for long enough.

…

{New Quest Chain!}

A Gamer's First Steps: The Basics

Enter the Dungeon as you are and reach Level 2 by the end of the day.

Rewards: 100Exp, +1 Gacha Token

…

'That is rather insidious of you.'

{No risk, no reward. Seriously though, you were a soldier, have a little backbone.}

Ramiel snorted derisively. 'Hmph! The reason I lived so long was due to being cautious and vigilant.'

{They are Goblins... Children can and do kill them on a daily basis.}

'Children with the blessing of Gods mind you.' He grumbled. 'And the other ones are Kobolds which are arguably more dangerous but I see your point.'

Ramiel looked over to the side, where a steady trickle of adventurers were coming and going through a large marble archway in groups of twos and threes, some looking tired out or a little worse for wear but most had the air of confidence around them.

'Okay, let's do this.'

The young man pushed off the wall, slapped his cheeks and made sure to toggle Presence Detection and Semi-Perfect Memory on before taking his first true steps towards the dungeon.

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The entrance to the Dungeon was, for lack of better words, a large hole in the ground, around a dozen or so meters across. It was right in the centre of the large circular chamber, surrounded on all sides by multiple, evenly spaced stone columns that were decorated with similar relief engravings to the different sections of the outside tower.

Ramiel looked around, eyes wide in abject wonder, that was until his eyes were drawn above and his breath hitched. Painted on the ceiling was an incredibly realistic mural of the sky, sun and clouds. It was simplistic in design but extremely beautiful in execution.

'This is like walking into a museum of every single Godly Pantheon ever to exist on Earth.' He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck

'Well… apart from the Abrahamic ones... YNWH would be pissed.'

{Nah, he's a cool guy. Great Gamer too.}

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<In another universe>

Plumes of smoke rose above a small village in the far north, screams and explosions piercing the silence of the cold winter night as people desperately ran in all directions.

"Fus Ro Dah!"

"Hehehehe! Daddy's here! Run you Me-less Heathens!"

"Father please stop! …They have already surrendered. What happened to preaching forgiveness?"

"Shut it, Michael. You're such a stick in the Mud!"

"'Conjure Flame Atronach' Ahaha! The creator still got it!"

"Father!"

"Honestly you could learn a thing or two from Lucy, he was so much more fun."

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'...Okay, just gonna pretend I didn't read that or see that incredibly realistic and relatively harrowing video clip played directly into my mind.'

'Hmm... So yeah, I wonder what the reason for the huge mural of the sky is?'

{Probably just Ouranos being vain.}

The young man shook his head. 'He doesn't really seem like the type.'

'I think it is likely there to promote Adventurers mental well being or give them hope, so that the first thing they see when leaving the dungeon is the outside sky and not more darkened stone.'

{It may be there to provide people with enough motivation to travel the last few steps to safety or it may just be a pretty piece of artwork.

Just stop stalling and get in that hole so you can find out for yourself!}

'That's what she said.'

Ramiel chuckled slightly at his own crude joke and walked towards the edge of the hole. Inside were a set of gentle stone stairs that spiralled around and led down onto the first floor of the dungeon.

Visually, there were a lot of similarities between the dungeon entrance and the Didyma Doline in Greece which was ironic enough considering Ouranos was the one who had all this built.

Shaking his head to clear away any unnecessary thoughts, the young man put away his hesitation, planted his foot on the first step and began his descent.

-----------------------------------

At the bottom of the spiral staircase, the floor opened up into an extremely wide and dimly lit hallway known as the 'Beginning Road'. The walls and floor completely changed in both colour and substance from dark grey granite rock to the lightly coloured bluestone indicative of the first four floors.

An indisputable affirmation that he had indeed finally taken his first steps into the dungeon proper.

Ramiel advanced towards one of the many unoccupied tunnel-like passages that split off from the Beginning Road and stopped just inside to retrieve his shortsword and strap the sheath to his waist. It had a good weight to it and he felt much more confident with it in his hand but the description was anything but reassuring.

…

Curved Short Sword

A sharp sword, perfect for slashing or stabbing.

…

'Does it have no further explanation or any indication of damage? Does that mean that weapons don't have a damage stat here?'

{Unless stated otherwise, a solid hit in centre mass will deal (STR + DEX * 5) damage. Hitting vital areas and using weapons will also deal varied amounts of extra damage.}

{I removed most of the damage calculations to make it more immersive.}

'Why? It seems like something that would be helpful to know.'

{Unlike Gamer I.D's, monsters in this world have weak points just like humans and if you hit them with an appropriate weapon, they will die just like everything else.

Conversely, some are a lot more durable than their HP would suggest.}

'So... Critical Hits?'

{I thought you didn't have time to play games?}

The young man snorted once again. 'I'm not an absolute neanderthal. Hmm, so I deal around 65HP worth of damage with each single solid hit but possibly more when slashing or stabbing through vital areas.'

'Let's find something to test it on!'

With renewed enthusiasm, Ramiel started delving further into the passage, advancing at a moderate pace while keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any movements.

With Presence detection picking up nothing within range and Semi-Perfect Memory mapping out his travelled route, there was no need to fear getting lost or being ambushed from the darkness but still, it paid to be wary.

Making his way through the slightly damp tunnels and corridors for a few minutes, the young man finally detected a single hostile presence around the next bend in the passage…

He crept forward, short sword at the ready and tentatively poked his head around the corner, only to spot a skinny green figure wearing a ragged loincloth with its back, half turned towards him.

A Goblin!

The creature was only around three feet tall, its head looked to be too large for its body, its belly was distended and it's arms that were hanging down by its sides each ended in a four fingered hand sporting sets of jagged looking claws.

All in all, it was a pretty damn ugly looking thing.

'Observe'

…

Goblin

Lvl: 2

HP: 70

CON: 7

STR: 6

???

???

…

'Isn't the information there a bit... limited?

{The goblin is a higher level than you. If you level the skill some more, you will be able to see more.}

'At least observe gives me the monster level on Gamer terms and doesn't just show it as a 'Level 1 monster' like it does with Adventurers and people.'

{Like I said, if you want to know more, level the skill.}

'Okay, okay. Focus! It may look humanoid but it's not human and it will not hesitate to kill me if I give it the chance...'

If he wanted to kill it in one hit, he would have to either cause enough damage with his sword that the extra 5HP was instantly emptied, or he would have to land a Critical hit on a weak spot. Either it's head or heart.

Thinking till there, Ramiel spent a few seconds slowing his breathing and sweeping away all errant thoughts before adopting a loose stance. He took one last deep breath in and started creeping towards the goblin. As the distance closed, his strides gained momentum and when he was less than a meter away the young man raised the short sword and stabbed it cleanly through the back of the creature's head.

He twisted the blade once, hearing a wet squelch and meeting little resistance as he did so, killing the creature instantly.

…

+3Exp

…

Ramiel wiped the sword on the Goblin's loincloth and unsheathed the dagger at his thigh in order to begin collecting the stone while his brows furrowed slightly.

3Exp per Goblin was not terribly harsh but he would still need to kill another thirty-three of the things if he wanted to level up by the end of the day.

He had been here for a while now and it was already around noon, not to mention that he had no idea how muscle fatigue would affect him with Gamers Body.

Finding the stone, he hooked it out of the Goblins chest cavity and the corpse disappeared in a cloud of ash

…

+1Exp

…

The young man hummed to himself. Yeah, he could work with that…

Over the next hour or so, Ramiel found and defeated another seven goblins in similar ways to the first with only one of them managing to react before he could reach it.

He was actually quite disappointed. They were slow, much slower than he was at least, and although they moved in an irregular manner, it was a simple feat to sidestep the wildly charging creature and slash open a fatal wound on its neck. After retrieving the eighth magic stone and watching the Goblin corpse turn into ash, the young man placed it into his backpack and couldn't help but spew out his true thoughts with the lodger in his head.

'You know, this…' He gestured to where some particulates were still floating in the air. '...all feels incredibly surreal to watch.'

'But at the same time, seeing that happen over and over somehow makes everything feel much more real.'

'Before coming down here, part of me was actually quite scared that I would wake up and this had all been… well, a dream.'

'That was mostly the reason why I hesitated to come down or didn't try to immediately seek out Hestia because I was terrified that either of those two would become the catalyst, the point where I would wake up...'

'But now I believe without a doubt. This isn't a dream, I'm really here, in another world, in Danmachi.'

He clenched his fist tightly, hearing the satisfying sound of the leather glove stretching. 'This isn't a dream but I can make it my dream.'

{Great, you've finally experienced some form of character growth. Now, let's go get all the money… and bitches.}

Ramiel was about to add his own sarcy comment when he saw a flash of something yellow and feathery out of the corner of his eye.

"Shit! What was that!?"

His head whipped around, eyes frantically searching the tunnel he was currently crouching in and caught sight of a small, yellow, chicken-sized bird running directly across the T junction at the end of it.

'Was that one of those incredibly rare birds that have a stupidly valuable drop item?'

{It sure was. The drop item is worth milli…}

Ramiel's mind went blank, he stopped paying attention to the Game and before he even knew what was going on, his body had started moving at full speed in the direction of the golden rooster. He reached the end of the tunnel, skidding to a halt and almost crashing into the end wall before spotting a flash of yellow turning the corner ahead, and sprinted after it down another tunnel.

He continued to follow it for a while, going at full speed as he twisted and turned through caves and tunnels of all shapes and sizes, always catching glimpses of the infernal thing but never seeming to get any closer. Ramiel eventually began breathing heavily, his limbs were starting to feel a bit numb, his lungs were burning from the exertion and his energy began to rapidly deplete but he still, rather foolishly, continued to push onwards.

Tired as he was becoming, his resolve never wavered and he only picked up speed.

The money from that drop could easily allow him and Hestia to rent or even buy a decent place in the city as well as procure some good armour and a better weapon while saving his 200,000 Valis as a nest egg.

The almost mocking sound of the rooster clucking came from just ahead, spurring Ramiel on further. "Just a bit more!"

However, the feeling of fatigue quickly got a lot worse, his heart was hammering in his chest and his breaths were now coming in fast and laboured.

'I should absolutely be a lot fitter than this.' He checked his status in a panic only to find that his stamina was almost empty... "Shit, sprinting must drain stamina!" By this point, things were looking bad for the young man, he had already followed the bird deep into the first floor and was about ready to give up before he yet again caught another glimpse of yellow, this time just ahead of him.

His eyes opened wide. Finally, he was gaining on it!.

He sped up for one last push and just before he rounded the corner, Presence Detection tagged three hostiles.

Ramiel tried to stop but was unfortunately just a little too late and he found himself skidding around the corner only to come face to face with a small group of Goblins that had their backs against a dead-end wall. That wasn't the worst of it, however, as from the tunnel behind him came several cracking and grinding sounds of the stone walls moving against each other. That could only mean one thing...

"Fuck fucking fuck! Monster spawn!"

The young man felt a cold sweat form on his back. Trap! This was a trap designed to kill the newbie and that newbie was him!

'Except I'm not a newbie am I? Calm down Ramiel, deal with the ones in front first.' Pushing Gamers Mind to its absolute limit, Ramiel took the thigh dagger from its sheath, sucked in another deep breath and pushed off of the ground.

He stalked forwards, heart thundering in his chest as the goblins roared and charged towards him. 'Gotta kill these fast.'

Meeting the first of the trio head-on, he raised his foot and kicked it as hard as he could in the chest. A sickening crunch was heard and the greenskin flew into one of the other two, sending both tumbling to the ground with a shriek.

…

+3Exp

…

By this point, the claws of the third goblin were almost within reach and Ramiel hastily slammed his raised foot into the ground, slightly shifting his position and flashing across its neck with his dagger in a reverse grip as he did so.

The goblin made it a couple of steps before its head rolled off its shoulders and onto the ground, its neck hole making an awful whistling noise as it pumped copious amounts of foul-smelling blood onto the tunnel floor.

…

+3Exp

…

With a quick stomp on the last, barely alive, goblin's throat, the tunnel was momentarily quiet again.

…

+3Exp

…

Ramiel gasped for breath, his stamina still extremely low and with sweat pouring off him like a waterfall, he fumbled with his satchel to withdraw a Basic Stamina Potion. Popping the cap off, he gulped it down, his eyes never leaving the curve of the tunnel.

After staring warily for a scant few seconds that felt like decades, the potion finally kicked in and his stamina was near-instantly filled. His breathing returned to normal, although the burning sensation in his limbs did not fully recede.

*Growl* Ramiel gripped his weapons and a few seconds later, Four, bipedal wolf-like creatures rounded the corner. They were about as tall as the goblins but they seemed much more dangerous, especially those teeth.

'Observe!'

…

Kobold

Level 2

HP 80

???

STR: 5

???

AGI: 6

…

The one at the front of the group stalled as it noticed him but, faster than it could make a noise, his hand shot forward and the Kobold dropped face-first onto the floor, a knife buried in its chest.

…

+4Exp

…

The second one met a similar fate as the much smaller knife swiftly appeared in its eye socket and it fell to the floor thrashing around, impeding the last pair of kobolds from immediately charging him. One of them dived forward, jumping clean over its injured brethren and landed on the ground on all fours, fangs bared.

It shot towards him, closely followed by the last uninjured Kobold and reached Ramiel in the blink of an eye. It was fast, almost as fast as he was at full tilt, but Ramiel was prepared for it.

He turned slightly to the side, stepping out of the way of the charge, and the short sword, now gripped with both hands, flashed upwards, drawing a wide arc of silver. The Kobold was split in half at the waist, both parts of it turning into dust in mid-air, as a magic stone hit the floor next to him with a slight clinking sound.

…

+5Exp

…

Unfortunately for Ramiel, who was expecting much more in terms of resistance, the wide upwards slash had put him in a terrible position to protect himself and the last Kobold had almost closed in on him. His arms, still tired from the earlier exertions, were unable to bring the sword down into a decent enough position in time to either attack or defend himself from the beast.

Resigning himself to take a bit of damage and feel some pain, the young man was pleasantly surprised when the final Kobold leapt up from the ground, attempting to bite out his throat. Proving himself a rather seasoned combatant, Ramiel instinctually stepped backwards as a knee came hurtling up into the air, catching the Kobold in the snout mid-leap and sending it careening off to the side.

He quickly adjusted his balance while the Kobold dazedly tried its best to stand up and rushed over to it. Planting his boot on its shoulder and forcing it back down onto the ground, he quickly ended it with a stab through the heart.

…

+4Exp

…

Leaning against the wall, Ramiel took a few, much needed, deep breaths as he watched the last living Kobold's movements gradually slow down until it finally went still and the now familiar notification popped up.

…

+4Exp

…

He then started fishing the monster stones out of the corpses, gaining another string of +1Exp's, now putting him at (64/100), a single Kobold Fang And surprisingly a new skill.

{Skill acquired: [Dismantling](Active) - DEX Dependant

Allows the host to remove monster cores and/or parts of the monster with practised ease.}

It really did allow him to remove the monster stones at an extremely rapid pace, and without getting his dagger or his hands covered with blood too. So far, he had mostly managed to avoid wrecking his clothes or covering them in grime but in hindsight, it was a terrible idea to wear his only decent outfit down into the dungeon.

'I should really buy some more sets of clothes this afternoon and all the other essentials…'

Kissing the dog tags around his neck out of old habit, Ramiel re-sheathed his knives, pocketed the stones and began to make his way back towards the dungeon exit while searching around for any monsters to harvest along the way.

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